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November 2003
COLLEGE
Best Values in Public Colleges
by Brian Knestout
Put your financial goals
into action
Between registering for classes, making new friends,
navigating an unfamiliar campus and, oh, yes,
studying, new college students have plenty of
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debt shouldn't be one of them.
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But considering the way tuition charges have
rocketed in the past year, a little worry isn't just
prudent, it's unavoidable. Tuitions at public colleges
are 12.5% higher, on average, this year than they
COLUMNS
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from Kiplinger's experts Association of State Colleges and Universities.
That's on top of the 9.6% hike in the fall of 2002.
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But the averages hide staggering tuition hikes
striking some campuses, as lawmakers take aim at
college budgets in the scramble to make state
budgets balance. Auburn University, in Alabama,
hiked in-state tuition and mandatory fees by 17% this
fall (to $4,426) in response to a 6% cut in state
appropriations -- and that was before Alabama
residents soundly defeated the governor's call for
higher taxes. Students in New York marched across
the state to protest a 28% increase in state
university tuition, triggered by a 20% state budget
cut.
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Tax Breaks for College Savers
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100 best values in public colleges
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savings plan?
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college education?
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school?
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In California, the legislature lopped $410 million off the University of California's budget, an
amount equal to the total funding for UC-Berkeley. That led to a 30% hike in the in-state cost
of attending each of UC's eight campuses. Students have sued to try to roll back the increase.
Students in Maryland, who were hit by a 6% increase in the fall of 2002 and an additional 5%
hike this past January, also sued, arguing breach of contract. They lost the suit, and tuition
rose another 13% this fall. State regents in Arizona gave up their proud position of offering the
lowest in-state tuitions in the country and whacked students at Arizona State and the
University of Arizona with a 39% tuition hike, the largest percentage increase in the country.
And skyrocketing tuition is only half of the story. Colleges are tightening their belts, too,
resulting in things you're not likely to see in the next recruitment fliers: bare library shelves as
acquisition budgets are slashed; empty administrative offices as jobs are eliminated; and more
crowded classrooms or fewer courses as faculties are squeezed.
Bargain-hunting
So it's high time to cast a critical eye across a public college landscape to see which colleges
give students the best bang for the buck. Our exclusive survey of U.S. public colleges and
universities shines a spotlight on schools that combine great academics with reasonable costs.
As our database shows, there are still dozens of places where students can get an excellent
education for a reasonable price. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tops our list
for a fourth consecutive time, despite a 5% tuition increase this fall. How? Despite the hike,
total costs for in-state ($11,290) and out-of-state ($23,138) students remain reasonable,
especially when judged against private schools with similar academic reputations.
For Graham Long, a senior from Charlotte with a double major in political science and peace,
war, and defense studies, saving money doesn't mean sacrificing quality. "My dad pays my
tuition, which he couldn't do if I were going to a much more expensive private school," says
Long, who is active in student government and sings in a school choir. "The academic climate
is terrific, the professors are incredible, and I'm getting a great education without having to
take on any debt."
High-caliber academics and generous financial aid are also keys to UNC's top ranking. Chapel
Hill's ability to meet 100% of the shortfall for students with financial need sets the school apart
from the pack. "Need" is the difference between a college's cost and the amount formulas
calculate a family can "afford" to pay. A school that meets 100% of need offers enough grant
money, loans and work-study jobs to fill the gap.
Chapel Hill's sterling academics and reasonable cost let it draw top-notch students without
having to rely on beefy merit-based scholarships, saving the money for those with need (the
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school does offer merit-based scholarships, but it primarily uses private donations to fund
them).
Out-of-state deals
The nation's best deal for in-state students is, unfortunately, available only to North Carolina
residents. So this year we applied our evaluation to out-of-state total costs to uncover the best
bargains for out-of-state students, too.
Drumroll, please: Backed by its strong academic and financial aid scores, UNC-Chapel Hill
comes out on top again. But some schools actually turn out to be better relative values for
out-of-state students than for locals. Consider Truman State University, in Kirksville, Mo. It
ranks ninth on the list of in-state bargains, but rises to second when ranked on the cost to
students from outside the Show-Me state.
Erin Smith, 22, had a lot of choices when it came to college, because she was accepted to all
ten of the schools where she applied, including Vanderbilt, Emory and the University of Iowa in
her home state. Smith chose Truman because of its rigorous political science curriculum and
low out-of-state tuition -- $14,409 this year.
Her decision paid off. Good high school grades and ACT scores earned her a full scholarship.
She'll graduate this December with a 4.0 grade point average and has applied to Harvard,
Stanford and Columbia law schools. But Smith, who won the 2001 Miss Iowa title, might put
the law on hold if she wins a Rhodes scholarship for which she is being considered. "Some of
the things I've done at Truman might not have been possible at another school," she says. "I
go to a school big enough to offer all the opportunities of a large state school, but small
enough for me to know the university president personally."
Finding the right college is a highly individual decision that no list of "bests" can encompass.
But our list of schools, ranging from small (sixth-ranked New College of Florida, with 650
students) to small planet (University of Texas at Austin, with nearly 40,000), and from big city
(University of California, Los Angeles) to college town (University of Virginia, in
Charlottesville), is a good place to begin you search (see Expand your search online for the
best values for ways to customize your quest).
How the cream rises
We determined our rankings based on data provided by more than 500 public, four-year
colleges and universities to Peterson's, a division of the Thomson Corp. We supplemented
Peterson's data with our own reporting.
We cut the list to the 200 schools with the highest percentages of the 2002-03 freshman class
scoring above 600 on the verbal and math components of the SAT I, or scoring above 24 on
the ACT.
We culled that list to arrive at the top 100 schools based on several other measures of
academic quality -- including admission rates, student-faculty ratios, the percentage of faculty
with the highest degrees in their field, how much each school spends on instruction for each
student, how much each school spends on its library facilities, and four- and six-year
graduation rates.
Finally, we ranked each school on a combination of quality and cost components. We looked at
total cost for in-state students (tuition, mandatory fees, room, board and estimated expenses
for books and supplies), the average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but
not loans), the average cost for a student without need after subtracting merit-based grants,
the average percentage of need met by aid, and average debt a student accumulates before
graduation.
We repeated the procedure using out-of-state total costs and average costs after aid to
determine out-of-state rankings. Overall, our scoring places greater weight on quality, which
accounts for about two-thirds of the final score, than on cost.
One catch to these bargains is that you've got to gain admission. That's a tough hurdle at four
of our top 20 schools (UC-Berkeley, William & Mary, Virginia and UNC-Chapel Hill), where 40%
or fewer of applicants get in.
Total in-state costs among our top 100 range from $7,913 at Appalachian State University to
$17,616 at UCLA. Out-of-state costs range from $13,316 at the Mississippi University for
Women to $33,473 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
That's not cheap, which is why we credit schools that are generous with their need-based aid.
Besides Chapel Hill, other schools that meet more than 95% of need include Colorado School
of Mines, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Michigan State University and
University of California, San Diego.
-Reporter: Alison Stevenson
Great deals that aren't on our list
Our database lists 100 great deals at traditional, four-year public schools with broad-based
curriculums. But some off-the-radar schools merit special attention, too.
First are the military and service academies, including the federally run Air Force, Army, Coast
Guard, Merchant Marine and Navy academies, as well as two public colleges, The Citadel, in
Charleston, S.C., and Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, Va. All seven are highly selective
and offer tremendous opportunities. The federal service academies charge no tuition and
actually pay students a stipend to attend. The Citadel charges $15,655 for in-state cadets and
$24,066 for residents of other states. VMI charges $13,050 for in-state cadets and $25,762 for
others.
All seven require applicants to pass physical exams and physical-fitness tests before entering.
Applicants to the federal academies (except for the Coast Guard) must also obtain
congressional or military nominations and must complete a multiyear hitch of military service
after graduation. For these reasons, we did not include the schools in our final rankings.
Two other schools were not included on our final list because of limitations in the curriculums
they offer. North Carolina School of the Arts ($9,430 in-state; $20,030 out-of-state) offers
degrees in the visual and performing arts only, and the State University of New York College
of Environmental Science and Forestry ($13,702 in-state, $18,602 out-of-state) offers bachelor
degrees in a limited number of majors tailored to environmental study. While these limitations
keep the schools off our list, either could be a fabulous bargain for students seeking these
specialized curriculums.
There is also a little-known bargain hidden in the Ivy League. Many alumni of Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y. (including our editor in chief, Knight Kiplinger), know that the school
is actually a unique hybrid -- part privately endowed university, part land-grant state institution.
Students in the Colleges of Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Hotel
Administration are part of private Cornell, and they pay for it -- $28,754 in tuition and fees for
the 2003-04 school year.
But three Cornell undergraduate colleges -- Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology,
and Industrial and Labor Relations -- are state schools. That means they charge much lower
tuition -- $14,624 for New York residents, about half the cost of private Cornell, and $25,924
for others. The cost of room and board, $9,529, is the same for all.
Students at the three land-grant Cornell colleges have the run of the campus and sit in the
same classes with students enrolled in the privately endowed colleges. The only difference is
that their tuition is cheaper. We couldn't rank Cornell's public colleges with the other schools
on our list because the university does not track statistical data for financial aid separately by
college. But getting an Ivy League degree at a discount may well be worth its weight in gold.
Expand your search online for the best values
Our database shows you the best bargains in public colleges. Now, there's another
Web-based tool that lets you customize your search for affordable colleges and expand it to
cover private schools, too. Peterson's BestCollegeDeals, known primarily among a small cadre
of financial consultants, focuses on out-of-pocket costs: the amount a parent is really likely to
pay, after each school's average aid package is factored into the mix. The site helped
Jonathan and Karen Bartels of Princeton, N.J., get a realistic idea of what their family can
afford.
The Bartelses' daughter Shana, 17, scored over 1300 on the SATs, so she's likely to get into
her schools of choice. But her chances for merit-based aid are hard to gauge. Plus, the
family's income hasn't been steady. Jonathan, 50, is switching careers, from financial analysis
to sales management, and Karen, 43, runs a desktop-publishing business. So the $39,400per-year price for New York University, Shana's first choice, is tough to swallow. So is that of
Boston University, at $38,200. Rutgers-New Brunswick, number 41 on our list of state-college
bargains, seems the most feasible, at $14,300. But Kevin Simme, a financial consultant who
specializes in helping families find ways to pay for college, pointed the Bartelses to Peterson's
BestCollegeDeals to help get a clearer view of their options.
How it works. The site lets you estimate your expected family contribution, or EFC (the
amount a family can supposedly afford to pay), and see how much of the difference between
that amount and a school's sticker price is likely to be filled by financial aid -- based on average
aid packages of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study jobs awarded by each school. The
result is an estimate of the cost for your family. The methodology differs from the calculations
in our tables, which compute cost using average gift awards (scholarships and grants) but not
loans and work-study income.
BestCollegeDeals' Achilles heel is not knowing the probable breakdown between grants and
loans. But the program gives you a valuable hint: the average amount of debt carried by
graduates. You can pit any three schools head to head on graduate debt as well as other
factors, such as out-of-pocket costs and average financial-aid awards.
Even better is the "deals" link affixed to many of the roughly 1,500 schools in the database.
Using information on scholarships, grants and tuition breaks, the site can pull up overlooked
bargains at each college, including special breaks for academic merit, first-generation college
students, minority students, students who perform community service, siblings attending the
same college, as well as a catch-all "other" category that includes, for example, scholarships
for children of alumni or 9/11 victims.
Eye opener. BestCollegeDeals can show that colleges that seem financially unattainable may
actually be as good a buy as a state school -- or better. For the Bartelses, Peterson's
estimated out-of-pocket cost at private Boston University is $9,600, not that much higher than
the $7,500 estimate for public Rutgers. BU's aid packages meet an average of 90% of the gap
between EFC and the school's sticker price, generous enough to offset Rutgers's in-state
tuition advantage.
Peterson's cautions that its figures are only estimates based on data that the schools provide
and on the accuracy of the EFC figure. If a big chunk of an aid package turns out to be loans,
a seeming bargain could turn out to be a mirage. Still, the program can demonstrate that
schools that seem financially unattainable may be achievable after all. "It's an incredible
resource," Jonathan Bartels says. "This opens up possibilities we never knew we had."
Special offer. Peterson's normally charges $40 for six months of access to BestCollegeDeals.
But Kiplinger's readers can use the site for only $20. Use the coupon code "kiplinger" to get
the half-price rate.
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